ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Sebastien Bourdais waited 15 years to win the IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. When he finally got that win, he did so in spectacular fashion.
Bourdais, who now lives in St. Pete, started his IndyCar career there in 2003, on a weekend where he started from the pole but crashed during the race.
He reversed that pattern in 2017. He crashed in qualifying, which meant he had to start dead last. Thanks to a combination of luck, speed, and strategy, the 38-year-old French native ended up leading 69 laps of the 110-lap race, wining by ten seconds.
Team owner Dale Coyne called an alternative strategy, calling Bourdais to the pits a few laps before the rest of the field, and it paid off when a collision brought a caution shortly after. With the rest of the cars needing to pit, Bourdais went from tenth to second in a lap.
